We’re London-based and UK-focused first, which is deliberate rather than a limitation: most of this work goes better with people in a room. We do work with companies elsewhere, including companies in the USA and UAE.
It depends on the situation you’re in, and we agree the window with you at discovery rather than quoting one now. What’s consistent is the shape: four stages, and nothing moves until the one before it is signed off.
If you’ve got a date you’re working towards, tell us early and we’ll say honestly whether it’s possible.
Yes, and it’s worth separating two things that often get bundled together. Building a brand as a system doesn’t commit you to an ongoing relationship with us. It means the thing we hand over is structured to absorb change rather than break under it, which is a property of the work, not a subscription.
What it does mean is that we won’t deliberately build something disposable to save a fortnight. Nobody has ever come back and asked us to make their brand less adaptable, and the cost of building it properly the first time is smaller than the cost of the second project.
Then we tell you before you commit, which is the point of doing it first. The Diagnostic establishes which situation you’re in and what the figure actually is, and you decide from there.
It moves down as often as up. Companies arrive expecting the upper range and turn out to have a simpler problem than they feared more often than the reverse.
Good, that usually makes the work faster. We start by reading what exists and keeping what holds up, rather than insisting on starting from nothing.
What we won’t do is build on positioning we think is wrong without saying so. If the existing work doesn’t survive the first stage, you’ll hear it then rather than at the handover.
A full build is scoped to your business, but typically covers three things: strategy and positioning (the thinking the brand stands on), a complete visual identity (logo system, colour, typography, imagery), and the systems that keep it consistent (living guidelines and a design system). The depth of each depends on where your brand is and what it needs to do next.
The instinct to rebrand on new funding is common, but the better question is whether your brand was built to grow with you in the first place. If it's drifting from where the company is heading, a rebuild is worth it. A Brand Diagnostic Session will tell you honestly whether you need one, or whether what you have can be evolved instead.
The person in the room is the person doing the work. A brand build is run senior throughout, and we take on a limited number each year specifically so that stays true.
Because the number of things made isn’t what makes the work hard. Two companies can need an identical list and be weeks apart in effort, depending on how many brands are in play and how far the brand has drifted. Pricing on deliverables means the harder job quietly subsidises the easier one.
